Clinical, ultrasonographic, and functional outcomes after obstetric anal sphincter injury primary repair: A single-center experience.

OBJECTIVE

To present clinical and instrumental sequelae after obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS), evaluating correlations between intrapartum severity of lesions, postpartum symptoms, and sonographic and manometric findings; outcomes during subsequent deliveries were also evaluated.

METHODS

This retrospective study evaluated all consecutive women who sustained an OASIS between 2015 and 2020. Postpartum symptoms, anorectal manometry (ARM), and three-dimensional endoanal ultrasonography (3D-EAUS) were analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 107 women underwent OASIS primary repair; 84 (78.5%) of them were asymptomatic after 1 month. The presence and severity of symptoms showed a great correlation with instrumental outcomes in terms of maximum resting pressure, squeeze pressure increment (SPI), circumferential extension of defect for both external anal sphincter (EAS) and internal anal sphincter (IAS), and EAS, IAS and total Starck scores. There was a significant correlation between ARM and 3D-EAUS findings, with the exception of SPI, for which the abnormalities were not predictable based on EAUS results.

CONCLUSION

Both ARM and EAUS findings after OASIS are directly related to each other, and associated with symptoms. These instrumental tools may be useful for OASIS assessment and counseling.